Gwaine and Merlin came on a bridge on the edge of the forest, where a very small man was standing, seemingly guarding the space. Gwaine assessed the situation, then silently motioned for Merlin to stay put while he scoped it out from a better angle. He went into the trees, circling around to take the guard by surprise.

Frustratingly, when Gwaine did approach, Merlin hadn't stayed put, but approached the bridge directly and was talking with the little man.

"Ah!" the man said. "Finally! Strength has arrived! The trio is complete!"

Gwaine drew his sword and said, "Who is he?"

To Gwaine's shock, his sword turned to a bouquet of flowers before his eyes. He startled, and the man spoke with a great deal of seriousness.

"I mean no harm to either of you," the man said. "Now thank you to mean no harm in return."

"There is my sword—?"

"It will return to you once you reach the other side," the man said.

Gwaine watched the man carefully as he crossed the bridge, but as the man said, the sword was back in his hand. The little man said something to Merlin, who nodded and followed Gwaine across. As he was crossing, the man called out, "Remember, nothing is as it seems."

Well, if swords could be flowers, that seemed an understatement to Gwaine.

/-/

Krysia seemed a bit absent at breakfast, and Uther tried to raise her spirits.

"It's a lovely day," he said. She nodded, not looking up from her plate. "I have every faith in Arthur."

"As do I," she said.

To worry was female, he supposed. He'd read that somewhere once. It hadn't been representative of most females he'd known, but the sentence had to come from somewhere.

"You two should go on a ride today," Morgana said brightly. "I'm sure you could both use the distraction."

"I wish I could afford the time," Uther said. "With Arthur away, there's much to be done. But if you two wish to ride, you shouldn't let my business stop you."

"It's actually meant to rain this afternoon," Krysia said. "You can smell it."

Krysia excused herself before she'd finished her food, and Uther considered having someone check on her later.

"It's not like her to be so withdrawn," Uther said.

"I expect she's just tired," Morgana said. "She's still adjusting to the changes. Usually when Arthur's away, she's had work to keep her busy. You can always do something small to cheer her up."

"Like what?" Uther said, already half-thinking about everything he needed to arrange in Arthur's absence. Where was there time to cheer up Krysia?

"Well, she's always been fond of lemon cakes," Morgana said with a smile. She swept up to standing and lingered. "Perhaps that might raise her spirits."

Uther hummed. A simple gesture, but Morgana was right. Krysia had always been fond of lemon cakes.

/-/

In the night, Gwaine and Merlin made a fire and sat near it. For a land so warm in the day, it certainly did get cool at night. Gwaine was about to ask about Krysia when a disconcerting screeching sound, much like a creature catching and killing another, rang out on the air.

"What was that?" Merlin said.

"Pheasant," Gwaine said, hoping he sounded confident. Merlin's level of visible fear wasn't helpful.

"Pheasant?"

"Very big one," Gwaine said. He picked up his sword, just in case.

There was a long, quiet pause, and then Merlin said, "You can turn back if you want."

"Hah!" Gwaine said, forcing a smile. "I'm not scared of pheasants!"

"I don't know," Merlin said, also forcing a smile. Then his face fell serious and he said, "Why did you wanna do this?"

Gwaine touched the belt in his pocket, the one piece of Krysia he could carry with him until he figured out how to get back to her again.

"Same reason as you," he said. "Help a friend."

Merlin hummed, smiling, and said, "Arthur's lucky to have us!"

"Not Arthur," Gwaine said.

He was sure it would get awkward, the way things often did with men when you told them what you were thinking or feeling. But he should have know better, because Merlin just smiled and said, "I'd do the same for you."

"Well, I hope so," Gwaine said. "You're the only friend I've got."

"I'm not surprised."

Gwaine laughed, and Merlin said, "You have Krysia, too. She wanted to come—"

"Better she didn't," Gwaine said, although he only half meant it. "That woman is brilliant with a knife, but…who knows how she'd do against pheasants."

As if the creature in the dark knew it was being discussed, it screeched out again.

"It sounds like three pheasants," Merlin said.

Gwaine gripped his sword a bit together and said softly, "At least."

/-/

Uther didn't have a good opportunity to visit Krysia during the day, and he took dinner by himself for how busy he was, but at the end of the day, he went by her chambers with a small plate of lemon cakes. He knocked and waited, but when no one answered, he slowly opened the door, expecting to see her sleeping.

The bed was empty, the fire was hot, and Uther frowned, but he supposed there were a lot of things she might do. It was early enough that she might be returning something to the library, for example. He thought about waiting, but instead he set the lemon cakes on the table and left the room otherwise untouched. Knowing how particular Krysia was about all details, she'd notice anything he did, so best to do as little as possible.

/-/

Krysia went to Gaius's chambers, caught between exhaustion and sleeplessness. He was surprised to see her, but he ushered her in.

"Are you alright?" Gaius said. "You're looking a bit wan."

"I'm…"

She wanted to say she was exhausted, but the word caught in her throat for some reason.

"I'm fine," she said. "How are you faring with Merlin gone?"

"I'm not that old yet," Gaius said.

She knew he didn't fully believe she was fine, but it was the only word she could get out about herself, which was frustrating. She blamed it on the tiredness.

There was a sudden furious knocking at the door, and Gaius frowned, opening it.

"I'm sorry to wake you," Gwen said.

"Don't be silly," Gaius said, and she came in and realized they weren't alone. She hesitated for only a moment before speaking again.

"I'm not sure who else I could talk to," Gwen said.

"What's wrong?" Krysia said.

"It's Morgana," Gwen said.

"What's happened?" Gaius prompted, although Krysia had a sinking feeling she already knew.

"She—she had a box, and her eyes; it was like they were on fire. What do I do, Gaius? She's using magic!"

There was a pause, and Gaius and Krysia looked at each other. It was a matter of time, really, before Gwen realized something wasn't right with Morgana. And with Morgana growing more powerful, she was bound too be more careless. But what to say?

"Are you quite certain?" Krysia said. "It's possible you misunderstood something you—"

"No, no, I know what I saw," Gwen said firmly. "I've known Morgana for so long. I don't want to believe it, but she…isn't the person I knew. You've seen it too," she said to Krysia, who couldn't disagree, so she simply stayed silent. "She's changed, Gaius," Gwen continued. "I don't think she means well to any of us anymore."

Krysia looked at Gaius, who usually denied and denied and denied, but instead he hesitated, then whispered, "I wish I could say otherwise, but I fear you're right."

The question was, what to do about it?

/-/

The journey was long, but they didn't often pause. Merlin was intent on catching up to Arthur, who had a pretty good head start. They paused when Merlin spotted the tower of the Fisher King, gesturing at it in the distance.

"There it is," Merlin said.

"What's that in the sky?" Gwaine said. He could see dark creatures circling, diving at something on the ground. "They're not birds."

"I've never seen creatures like that," Merlin said.

Pheasants, Gwaine thought bitterly.

"It's like they're hunting something…"

"What was that?" Merlin said, pointing to the foot of the tower.

"A sword," Gwaine said, recognizing the glint in the sun.

"It's Arthur!" Merlin cried.

/-/

Double time wasn't fast enough. Arthur wasn't anywhere to be seen when they approached the tower, which was probably good news.

"I should have known," Gwaine said, finally getting a good look at one of the creatures, dark and large.

"What are they?" Merlin said.

"Wyverns," Gwaine said. "Distant cousins of the dragons. They're creatures of magic, so be careful."

They managed to get to the gates and enter the tower, and Merlin held an iron gate for Gwaine for him to get through.

"Quick, quick, quick!" Merlin cried.

Gwaine scrambled through, and Merlin suggested that they split up. Normally Gwaine would have been against this idea, given Merlin's relatively minimal defense capabilities, but it was a large tower, and they needed to find Arthur quickly.

He gripped Krysia's belt in one hand, his sword in the other as he searched the tower on his own. He called out for Arthur, but he heard some of the wyverns upstairs. He had a bad feeling that they'd gathered where food might be. Gwaine started climbing the stairs.

"Arthur?" he cried, with no response.

Gwaine found the wyverns, and there were Arthur and Merlin, caught unawares by an approaching wyvern. Gwaine stabbed it through, tucking Krysia's belt away before it was noticed.

"Great," Arthur said. He looked unwell, but he also looked cranky. "This just gets better and better. Are Gwent and Krysia and Morgana here too? Are we going to have a surprise party?"

Gwaine ignored Arthur's rant and said, "There's more wyverns on the way. We need to get out of here."

Arthur pulled himself up to standing and said, "I'm not leaving without the trident. It was the whole point of this quest."

He left them behind, storming out of the room. Merlin called after him.

"Do you want us to help you? Or do you want to do this alone?"

Arthur shouted Merlin's name from the stairs, and Gwaine raised his eyebrows as Merlin rolled his eyes.

"Here we go," Merlin muttered.

They followed Arthur up the stairs, and Merlin started his familiar, pleasant prattling.

"Do you know where the trident is?"

"If I did," Arthur said, "there wouldn't be a problem, would there?"

"Any clue you can give us?"

"This is a quest, Merlin, not a treasure hunt!"

"Well, it's a sort of a—"

"Merlin!"

They searched the tower further, and Gwaine was pretty sure it was hopeless, but they found a flight of stairs with a door.

"Look at this," Merlin said. "Looks like a throne room."

Arthur perked up and said, "If the trident's going to be anywhere—"

Merlin stepped forward and a trap engaged. Gwaine pushed Arthur back to keep him from being caught in the closing door, but Merlin was stuck on one side, Gwaine and Arthur on the other.

"Merlin?" Arthur said. "Merlin! You're alright?"

They couldn't really hear much of a response, but Gwaine started looking for loose stones on the wall.

"There's got to be a way to open this," he said, and Arthur began to look as well.

/-/

Krysia snuck into Morgana's chambers while Morgana was out for a ride with Gwen, and she found the box Gwen described, precisely where she said it would be. There wasn't anything she could do without raising Morgana's suspicions, but Krysia did examine the contents to describe for Gaius.

"Oh, Merlin," Krysia said, touching her pendant. "I really hope you've found him."

It wasn't terribly sophisticated or difficult magic, but it was powerful. To do its work over such long distances, it needed regular spells to be refreshed. How could she distract Morgana, or split her efforts without raising suspicion?

Perhaps Gaius would have ideas.

/-/

Arthur found a loose brick and said, "Now I'm sure if we just reach in here…" He pulled the away and dozens of bugs squirmed from behind it in the wall. Gwaine frowned. "…we'll be able to find something to release the door," Arthur finished weakly.

"Go on, then," Gwaine said, nodding to the wall. Arthur looked at him. "Don't be such a princess," Gwaine said, "it's your quest, after all."

/-/

Leon was on his way to see Geraint when he saw Krysia coming out of Morgana's chambers. He said her name and she paused, tensing for a moment before she saw him and relaxed. He wondered if she'd laid some kind of prank for Morgana, but he knew better than to ask.

"How are you feeling?" he said.

"Fine," she said.

"Did you get some sleep?" he said.

"Sleep?" she said, like she'd never heard the word before.

"When you were out the other night, you didn't seem to be very well-rested," he said.

Krysia continued to be puzzled, so he described their interaction a bit to jog her memory. She continued to look at him like she had no idea what he was talking about, and he decided she must have been sleep-walking after all. That was concerning, but she seemed better now, so perhaps it was nothing.

"Thank you for the lemon cakes, by the way," she said.

"Lemon cakes?" he said, frowning.

"The…" She frowned. "Someone left a tray of lemon cakes in my chambers. I was sure it must have been you."

Leon wasn't why, but he felt a pang at the realization that someone was gifting her a whole tray of her favorite treat. Well, he knew why, but he also knew better.

"I'm afraid it wasn't me," he said, and she hummed. She shrugged away the concern as though it were nothing, then hurried off without saying goodbye.

Perhaps she was afraid of being spotted too close to the scene of her prank. Whatever it was, he would of course say he never saw her today, but he tucked the memory of this encounter away, sure that there was still something not quite right about it, although he wasn't sure what.

/-/

Once Arthur worked the door trigger, the door did swing open, and Merlin was there, in the center of the room near an empty throne.

"Merlin!" Arhtur said.

He gave Merlin a bit of a pat, and Gwaine embraced Merlin, relieved that if the man was going to get locked in a room without anyone who knew how to use a sword, at least it was one without a wyvern.

Arthur pulled a dusty trident up and said, "Ha! Look what I've found! Now, let's get out of this place."

Gwaine didn't need to be told that twice. Arthur was already on his way out of the room, and Gwaine followed close behind, sure that Merlin would follow too, surely as eager as they were to leave.

/-/

Leon was relieved later that evening to find Gaius alone at the well. Leon paused and offered to help. Gaius let Leon draw his water, and as Leon worked, he said, "Has Krysia been to see you for anything lately?"

"Leon," Gaius said, "if she had, I wouldn't break her privacy by telling you."

He couldn't help smiling at that obvious answer, but Leon said, "I only ask because I think she may be sleepwalking again, although she seems unaware and insists that she's fine."

Gaius did seem surprised by this and said, "She does seem tired, but she has not confided in me. I will keep an eye on her. If you do find her sleepwalking again—"

"I will bring her directly to you, Gaius," Leon said, carefully handing the water to the physician. Gaius nodded, and the two men parted ways.

There was still something nagging at Leon, but he wasn't sure what it was, so he still couldn't be sure how to address it.

/-/

In a field, Gwaine paused, pulling back his horse and said, "This is the order." He touched the belt, aching to go forward with them, but knowing at this point it wouldn't do any good for anyone.

"With Uther's decree," Gwaine said, "I can go no further."

"I'm sorry, Gwaine," Arthur said. "There's nothing I can do to change that."

"One day," Merlin said, smiling.

Gwaine smiled too, thinking of his dreams, thinking of the future he was sure he'd seen, with Krysia in Camelot, building a future together.

"Yeah," Gwaine said, "when Camelot gets itself a half-decent king."

"Careful," Arthur said, "He is my father."

"Well, you can't have everything, huh?" Gwaine teased.

"Where will you go this time?" Merlin said.

Gwaine shrugged and said, "Think I'll ride south."

Cenred's kingdom had to be at least as interesting as Bayard's, and he hadn't been there in a while. Perhaps some of the more frustrated tavern owners had forgotten him.

"You can't keep living like that," Merlin said.

"Yeah, but it's fun trying."

The distraction was the only thing that kept him going. The edge of always moving, it kept him from feeling the pain of the separation, of knowing exactly what he was being kept from, and the ache of longing for it.

Arthur rode forward without a word, and Merlin said softly, "Thanks, Gwaine. I'll tell her."

Gwaine smiled, not bothering to ask what Merlin would say. Gods willing, she already knew.

Arthur turned suddenly on his horse as Merlin began riding forward.

"I will remember this, Gwaine," Arthur said.

Gwaine sighed as he watched them ride, took the belt out of his pocket, and tied it on his saddle. At least she was with him, in some small way.

/-/

When Arthur arrived, Uther had everyone gathered in the throne room for him to present his prize. Krysia was there in her green, and although she did look a bit tired, a weight seemed to be off her as Arthur held out the trident for all the court to see. Perhaps things would improve.

"Arthur," Uther said, "I don't know what pleases me more, to be in possession of such a precious artifact or know that you have finally proved yourself to be the man I always hoped you would be."

Arthur smiled and said, "Thank you, Father."

"I have no doubt that you will one day make a fine king."

Uther led Arthur out of the room to put the trident in the vault, and the whole of the court applauded Arthur's success. This was the beginning of a grand future.

Now he just needed to bind Krysia's lands to the throne, and everything would be fine.

/-/

Krysia sat with Gaius and Merlin in Gaius's chambers that evening, looking at a phial that the Fisher King had gifted Merlin in exchange for death, which seemed an eerie bargain to Krysia.

"It's from the lake of Avalon?" Gaius said.

"That's what he told me," Merlin said.

"Interesting," Gaius said.

"Yes, but what's it for?" Krysia said, frowning at it.

Gaius shrugged and said, "Well, it must have some significance."

"Maybe," Merlin said. "Do you believe his warnings?"

"Well, we already know one enemy is in our walls," Gaius said darkly.

"Morgana is an increasing problem," Krysia said, watching Merlin take back the phial.

Gaius hummed and said, "Her abilities are growing. Whether the Fisher King is right or wrong, we'd be foolish to ignore his words."

Krysia and Merlin both nodded, but as Krysia was turning to leave, Merlin said, "Oh, Krysia." She paused. "He wanted you to know that he loves you."

She smiled absently, and she thanked Merlin, walking back to her chambers feeling just that little bit lighter.

A/N:

To Like-a-Slasher-Film: You typically read me very well, although not always perfectly, but I think in this instance you've taken it in slightly a different direction/duration than the incident will be. Hopefully you're relieved rather than disappointed.

The next episode is likely to be a one-chapter wonder. I'm hoping. Then we'll have a couple of chapters not from the show. Will there be Gwaine? Possibly. I'm truly undecided, but I think there may be snippets if nothing else. Buckle in!

-C